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A sudden woosh of air blew passed him, and Jim opened his eyes quickly. He told himself he'd have all the time in the world to be surprised later as his hands scrabbled for purchase on the small vessel that had suddenly appeared in front of him.
A door opened, and then Spock was there, grabbing his wrist and pulling him inside.
The two collapsed on the floor of the vessel, both gasping for breath.
McCoy was at the comm., telling everyone they had Jim and were heading back to solid ground.
With a deftness that the doctor definitely hadn't had at any time he had flown a shuttle before, he guided the ship away from the closing entrance bay doors and back towards the main square with the buildings that housed the Control Room and other official offices.
Carol immediately wilted in relief, and it was only April's arms that kept her from falling to the floor. "Let's get you back to your room," the doctor tried again, but Carol shook her head stubbornly.
"I'm not going anywhere," she refused to be that fiancée who everyone had to fuss over when they should be more concerned with Jim right now. "I need to see Jim."
April didn't look entirely convinced, but she nodded in agreement.
On the ship, McCoy handed the controls over to Spock and immediately went to Jim's side. Jim hadn't even made an attempt to stand up, and McCoy was worried.
"Thanks for the assist," the Captain was still breathing heavily. He ignored McCoy's presence for the moment, and looked up at Spock. "I assume the Commodore sent people to get the air turned back on?"
Spock nodded, but any confirmation was cut off as Jim let out a sharp gasp when McCoy began probing his side, feeling the bones shift beneath his skin. "Stop that," he muttered, weakly attempting to shove his friend's hands aside.
McCoy frowned. "You've got broken bones, Jim. I'm just trying to see how bad the damage is before you try to hide it all."
Jim grimaced. "Broken ribs, dislocated shoulder, and I think there's a bone in my leg that should not be moving around on its own," he admitted. "Probably a mild concussion as well," he added as an afterthought. "Edison got a few solid hits in."
McCoy's frown deepened in worry. He didn't have his tricorder anymore, but he knew that Jim's assessment was probably accurate. He could feel the ribs, and his shoulder clearly looked out of place. He also thought Jim's left wrist was a little too swollen, but he would know more in a few minutes. "Spock, get us to the hospital. Now."
The Commander nodded quickly, and altered the course of the ship slightly, heading for the large building in question, rather than the main offices they had originally been intending.
As he guided the ship down, Spock informed everyone of their change in destination. Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov immediately headed to meet them, as did Carol and April after a nod from Jon told them to get going.
Scotty wanted to follow as well, but he needed to finish cleaning out the systems from the virus that had been infecting it. He would head to the hospital as soon as possible.
Jim knew better than to protest as McCoy dragged him off the ship as soon as Spock landed. He pushed Jim onto the nearest open bed inside, and grabbed a tricorder from a passing doctor.
Scanning Jim, he noted that the man's assessment was pretty accurate. There were a few bruised muscles, a fracture to his wrist, and there was nothing 'mild' about that concussion, but nothing incredibly life threatening.
McCoy set to work immediately, preparing Jim for the osteoregenerator with a dose of one of the few pain killers that wouldn't send him into anaphylactic shock. He didn't like to use the heavy stuff unless it was bad because the drugs Jim could actually take were pretty serious, but given how many broken bones Jim needed fixed, this definitely qualified for extenuating circumstances.
"I'm going to pop your shoulder back in first," McCoy said apologetically. "I'll fix your leg, then the ribs. Your wrist has a hairline fracture, that won't take very long to heal. The shoulder will be sore for a while, but assuming you'll stay still long enough I can speed up the healing process a little."
At this point, Jim was willing to stay for as long as necessary to get all of his injuries taken care of, but he was realistic enough to know that the situation wasn't completely done yet, and he would need to give a report to someone as soon as possible.
The two were silent as McCoy got started. Spock joined them a minute later, having taken the time to move the ship out of the way so that it wouldn't block the hospital's entrance. There were still injured civilians and peace talk participants being brought in, and it wouldn't help anyone if there was a large ship cutting off access for any emergency vehicles.
A few minutes after that, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov came running in, Carol and April following close behind. After taking a minute to assure herself that Jim was alive and not in any imminent danger of that changing, April moved off to offer her services to the Emergency Department chief, who was grateful for the assistance. There were quite a few people waiting to be seen, mostly for minor injuries obtained in the mass hysteria that had followed the attack on Yorktown. A few were dealing with breathing issues, and some had been struck by falling debris, but fortunately, April didn't expect the casualty list would be too long.
Carol went immediately to Jim's side and wouldn't be moved no matter what. She just stubbornly held onto his uninjured hand and offered whatever silent support she could as McCoy helped Jim thread his now realigned shoulder and arm into a sling to keep it immobile while the osteoregenerator did its work on his other injuries.
"What's the situation with HQ?" Jim asked tiredly, looking around the group and hoping that someone would have an answer.
Carol grimaced when she realized that they were all looking at her now, since she had come from the control room. "I'm sorry," she offered, "We ran out of there too fast to get an update."
Jim squeezed her hand reassuringly in response. "But Kodos is still out there somewhere," he surmised. "I doubt he's going to leave Yorktown until he's done. He's too proud for that."
"Sociopathic, you mean," McCoy muttered under his breath, but they all heard him.
None of them disagreed. "Do we even know if he came with Krall?" Sulu wondered.
When they thought about it, none of them were certain. He hadn't been found among the ships that the Franklin had stopped, and he hadn't been anywhere near Krall when Jim had seen him.
"Most likely," Jim finally replied, his voice soft and tinged with a haziness that spoke of fairly strong drugs coursing through his system. "This was Kodos' endgame as well. He might have had different reasons than Krall, Edison, whatever he called himself. But Kodos had a plan too, and it all ends here. He's on Yorktown somewhere, I'm sure of it."
"What about Lenore?" Uhura wondered. "Are we looking for her as well?"
Jim looked at her, confused, and with a start, Uhura realized that while she and Sulu had been confronted by the father-daughter duo, none of the rest of them would be aware of the relationship. They knew that Lenore had been in league with Krall and Kodos, but that was it.
"Sorry," she apologized. "Lenore is Kodos' daughter, Jim. She was with him when he came to see us at Krall's prison."
Jim blinked, startled, and Chekov let out a curse in Russian that might have had Jim reprimanding him for his language at any other time. Uhura raised an eyebrow, impressed at the creativity in spite of herself.
Chekov caught the look and blushed, embarrassed.
Jim was about to open up his comm. to talk to Jon or Richard, when he realized he no longer had the earpiece in; it must have fallen out during his free fall towards space. Grimacing, he looked at Spock. "Let the Admirals know, and make sure they're looking for Lenore as well. I knew her escape on that planet would come back to bite us."
Spock nodded, and stepped away to do just that.
"So what happens now?" Sulu asked curiously.
McCoy glared at the pilot. "Now, you all keep silent or get lost. I need to fix humpty dumpty before he decides to go break himself again. Tell Archer that he can talk to Jim after I clear him. If he wants to come by as a friend I can't stop him, but I don't want to hear any mention of official business until tomorrow morning at the earliest."
Jim smiled softly, amused at the gruff demeanor and knowing that it was McCoy's way of showing he cared. When the doctor turned his glare on Jim, he just held up his good hand – still entwined with Carol's – in silent surrender.
Spock rejoined them. "Admirals Archer, Barnett, and Pike will be arriving within the next hour," he informed them. "They understandably have questions but are aware that they may not receive answers until the Captain has been medically cleared."
McCoy nodded sharply. "Good. Now you sit down too." He got back to work, focusing on the osteoregenerator. Spock blinked, startled, and McCoy glanced up again, his hands not pausing as he ran through the familiar checks to make sure the device was attached properly. "You're held together with duct tape and a prayer, Spock. As soon as I'm done with boy wonder here, you're next."
Spock inclined his head quickly; though he had to admit some of the vernacular escaped his understanding, the meaning was clear. And he was feeling a little tired, it would not be unseemly to sit for a while.
He dropped into a nearby chair as the others hovered uncertainly, feeling awkward but not wanting to leave.
The tense silence was broken roughly fifteen minutes later when Kevin and Joanna came rushing through the emergency department's open bay. Kevin hadn't been tapped for the rescue mission, and had agreed to watch Joanna for McCoy and April while they went on the short assignment. Both had been worried sick when Pike had contacted them a couple days ago to tell them that something had gone wrong and the Enterprise was missing.
"Dad!" Joanna immediately rushed to her father's side, and McCoy stopped what he was doing to scoop her into a tight hug.
"I'm all right, Jo-Jo," he promised.
Joanna pulled back and searched his expression for some sign that he wasn't being truthful. She didn't seem to find it, and turned to Jim instead. "Uncle Jim?" she asked hesitantly.
Jim immediately gave her a tired smile. He didn't want to, but he let go of Carol's hand so that he could reach out for the worried teenager instead. Carol understood, even if she still wanted the reassurance, and agreeably moved back so that Joanna could take her place at Jim's side. She moved around to the side, and rested a hand lightly on his leg instead – the unbroken one.
Joanna hopped up on the biobed next to Jim and burrowed into his side, clutching onto his arm anxiously. "How bad is it?" she whispered, looking up at him with wide eyes. There was a large part of her that hated how scared and young she felt – she was almost fifteen for god's sake! – but this was Uncle Jim, and he always seemed to do stupid things to protect other people.
Jim squeezed her hand back. "Nothing your dad can't fix easily," he promised.
Joanna looked at McCoy, and he nodded in agreement, offering her his own smile. "He'll be good as new in a few days."
Joanna let out a sigh of relief, and Kevin also slumped slightly. "I'm sorry for rushing her over here," he tried to apologize, knowing that McCoy didn't like Joanna to see how serious things got sometimes. "She was scared, just wanted to know you were all OK."
McCoy shook his head, cutting the Ensign off quickly. "It's fine," he promised quietly, not wanting their conversation to carry to the teenager who was completely focused on making sure her Uncle Jim wasn't lying about being OK. "I'm glad you brought her."
Once more an awkward silence seemed to descend, broken almost an hour later when Jon, Richard, and Chris came in. McCoy had finished setting Jim up and dragged Spock to a nearby biobed to make sure his quick fix back on that planet was holding and didn't need any more immediate attention.
Uhura had followed after her boyfriend, but Chekov and Sulu commandeered an empty biobed next to Jim's, now that things were calming down slightly and people were starting to get discharged.
Joanna and Carol refused to move from their positions, and Kevin decided to join the others on the biobed.
When the Admirals arrived, McCoy reappeared, Spock trailing behind looking as contrite as it was possible for a Vulcan to get. He reclaimed his earlier seat in the nearby chair while Kevin quickly stood up so that Uhura could sit down as well, and they all turned to focus on McCoy.
The doctor was busy assuring the Admirals that Jim would be fine in a few days, but he wasn't letting the Captain leave the hospital until morning. "You can talk business if you have to, but no interrogations and no debriefs until then," he stated firmly.
Archer nodded in understanding and turned to Jim. "We'll get the full story then," he promised. "For now, just know we're still looking for Kodos and Lenore. We've got all cameras scanning, and facial recognition caught him once, shortly after you guys made your big entrance. He was seen on one camera leaving the square, but nothing since then. There are thousands of people at Yorktown, he could easily slip out without our knowledge."
Jim nodded tiredly. "What's happening with the talks?" he asked curiously. He hoped they hadn't completely destroyed any chance of accomplishing what they had planned.
Chris smiled slightly. "We adjourned for the day as soon as your warning came through. We just spent the last hour reassuring several delegates that everything was safe and the situation was under control."
"We might have to keep the talks on ice until we find Kodos," Jon admitted. "I don't want to risk anything going even more wrong. We did receive a request from the Klingons to meet with you and the rest of our representatives as soon as possible. I'll set it up for tomorrow afternoon."
Jim nodded in acceptance. "We can't let them win," he stated firmly. "We have to make sure the talks stay on track. All Edison wanted was to disrupt this event. He thought Terrans should be superior to all races, and the idea of equality among us disgusted him. We have to preserve what we're trying to achieve here."
Jon immediately nodded. "We will," he promised. "We'll let everyone know what's going on, and we can't keep anyone who wants to leave, but we will reschedule the last couple days we had planned, and we won't let this fall apart."
"Let's set this aside for the moment," Chris jumped in. "You're all probably exhausted, so go get a good night's sleep and we'll worry about this tomorrow." He stepped forward and offered Jim a light one-armed hug, being mindful of the arm wrapped in a sling, and Joanna who was quickly nodding off at her uncle's side. Pulling back, he lightly slapped Jim on his good shoulder.
Jim pulled back, confused. "What the hell was that for?"
Chris gave him a soft glare. "I had to find out I'm going to be a damn grandfather over a comm.? With god knows how many other people listening?"
Jon and Richard tried valiantly to hide their amusement, but weren't completely successful by the look Carol leveled at them. They immediately smoothed their expressions to serious, and focused on the conversation between Chris and Jim.
Jim raised an eyebrow, not even processing the insinuation that Chris was his father. After all these years, it was more true than not. "You do realize that I only found out after we left Yorktown, right? And Carol only knew a few days before that? It was on my list for once we got back."
Chris frowned, but then huffed and shook his head, smiling. "I'm not mad," he promised. "It was just surprising. Congratulations," he glanced at Carol, "to both of you. Not exactly how I imagined a big reveal, but I'm so happy for you." He paused and then looked back at Jim, a gleam in his eye. "But you get to be the one to tell Shay you stole her thunder. You just couldn't let us have the moment, could you?"
Jim rolled his eyes and Carol shrugged, but both knew he was joking. Jon and Richard offered their own congratulations, and the trio left.
Kevin looked around at the group, confused, but didn't comment as the group started to break up. Yorktown had managed to organize rooms for all the Enterprise crew before the ship had left on its mission. It was supposed to have been a short-term measure until the mission was over, but would need to last a lot longer than anticipated since there was now no more Enterprise. It hadn't been easy for the Yorktown team to find space for roughly sixty more people, but they managed. Many of the crew members were doubling or even tripling up, considering how many other people were staying on the station, but no one was complaining – they were used to missions going pear-shaped, and though this particular situation was new, they were nothing if not adaptable.
Kevin waited with Jim and Carol for McCoy and April to return and collect Joanna as Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov all left to find a bed to crash on. McCoy had let Spock get out of bed to reassure their friends that he was all right, but he wanted the Vulcan to stay overnight as well, just in case. So after giving Uhura a kiss, he dutifully nodded a farewell to Jim and headed back to his own biobed.
While those remaining were waiting for the doctors to come back, Jim told Kevin why the Admirals had been congratulating them, confirming what the younger man had thought they were talking about – he hadn't wanted to presume, but there were only so many ways 'I had to find out I'm going to be a damn grandfather over a comm.' could be taken. The younger man's face broke out into a large grin as he immediately rushed forward to give Jim a hug. "That's awesome!" he said, pulling back after a few moments.
Joanna, from her position at Jim's side, looked up at her uncle eagerly. "So I'm going to be a cousin!" she beamed. "This is going to be so much fun! I can't wait to meet her!"
Jim raised an eyebrow. "It could be a boy," he pointed out. "There's a fifty-fifty shot you know."
Joanna shrugged and jumped down from the biobed as she saw her father and new mother returning – April and McCoy had filed the paperwork for April to adopt her just before they had reached Yorktown. Thanks to her father's and uncle's not-so-insignificant connections, it had gotten approved rather quickly. As of two days after the wedding, it was official. "Not in my mind," she said simply. "It's so much more fun to play dress up with a girl."
She bounced away, leaving her parents to watch her go, confused. McCoy took a deep breath, and then let it out, shaking his head. "I don't want to know," he muttered. Louder, he gave Jim a glare. "You aren't leaving the hospital until tomorrow morning," he growled. "I don't care what excuses you try to come up with, I told the staff here not to budge. I'll be back first thing, and yes Carol, I cleared your presence with them too. They'll move you to a private room as soon as they can, and they're going to make sure it's a double bed so you can both get some rest."
Carol smiled gratefully, and Jim let out a huff of annoyance, but thankfully for the doctor he was too tired to protest the order.
April gave Jim and Carol a hug, and the two left the hospital.
Kevin smiled at McCoy's ministrations, knowing that sometimes the best way to get Jim to do anything was to not give him a chance to disobey. "I'll see you guys later," he said, waving as he too followed the path of all the others and made for the hospital's exit.
Jim and Carol shared a look, and then Carol climbed up next to Jim to wait for the hospital staff to move them to a larger bed so they could actually get some sleep.
XXX
Archer announced the small delay to the talks the next morning. He assured all delegates and attendees that they were safe, explained in basic terms what had happened the day before – praising Jim and his crew for coming to the rescue – and informed them of the continuing ongoing security concerns that were the reason for the schedule change.
To try and compensate for the inconvenience, Commodore Paris worked with the restaurants and hotels to set up more social events, allowing everyone the chance to still meet and mingle even without the more structured lectures and conferences.
Yorktown Security doubled down and put all their efforts into finding Kodos and Lenore, but there were so many people on the station that it was unfortunately unsurprising that they were unable to make any identifications.
Jim's debrief was quick and painless, and turned into more of a strategy session once the Admirals had all the facts. No ships had left Yorktown since the attack, so logically speaking Kodos and Lenore must still be on the station.
There was concern on whether Lenore was a willing participant since the statements put her at a young age – twenty at the oldest. Jim was adamant, however, that she knew exactly what she was doing.
"She grew up with the man," he reasoned. "I'm not saying I like the idea of it, but she's fully capable of making her own decisions. Kodos raised her to believe in his ideals and that's what she's doing here. She needs to be held accountable for her actions."
Jon frowned but nodded in agreement. "We're still running facial recognition on all cameras, but they have to be avoiding those."
Jim pursed his lips. "So what are the blind spots?" he asked curiously. Everyone looked at him, confused. Jim shrugged. "If the face trace isn't picking them up, then they're probably sticking to security's blind spots. So where are those?"
Richard propped his chin on his hand and thought. "Well, obviously parts of the hotels," he mused. "I mean, the public areas would have cameras, but all the rooms would be a black out. There are a few other places like that around the station." He looked at Paris. "Commodore, can you organize security to do a sweep of those areas? I'll talk with the hotel managers and see if we can look into any empty hotel rooms. I'm not sure how many of those there are, given the number of people currently staying on the station, but maybe they're holed up in one of those?"
"It's a start," Admiral Nogura agreed. "And a fair point, Captain Kirk. I don't like the idea of keeping these talks from proceeding any longer than necessary. We're already on thin ice with some of the delegates. I don't want any of them leaving because of this security issue. We've got too much to lose, with them and with the Klingons."
"How are they handling this?" Jim asked curiously. He hadn't heard anything about the treaty since their return to Yorktown.
Jon shrugged. "Better than some other representatives," he assured the younger man. "They're not making any noise about pulling out. But that's not to say they're happy." He paused. "I think if you were to spend this afternoon with them, it might go a long way in settling any frayed nerves."
Jim nodded immediately. "Of course."
"And we'll hold the talks for a couple days only," Nogura stressed, leveling a severe look at Jon, Richard, and Admiral Willis, the only other people in the room. "The day after tomorrow, we resume as normal. We'll have a reworked schedule for all participants by tomorrow, and we will sign the new treaty with the Klingons at the end of the week as planned."
No one looked particularly thrilled, but they agreed, and the meeting broke up.
XXX
Kodos wasn't found.
Security combed through all private areas of the station, the hotels offered a list of unoccupied rooms (not surprisingly, the number of empty rooms in all the hotels combined stayed in the single digits) along with any other areas that weren't covered by cameras, and each one was checked out one by one.
Kodos wasn't there.
Jim, as agreed, met with the Klingons and apologized for the disruption, assuring them that they still considered these talks and the treaty a priority.
There was some grumbling, but when asked what exactly was going on, Jim gained some brownie points for telling them the truth, that there was an escaped convict who had been involved in the attack on Yorktown, and he was still at large.
Given the facts, even the Klingons had to admit that it made sense to disrupt the schedule to find the criminal.
Jim left the room a few hours after he entered it, feeling optimistic.
But after two days, they had to admit defeat for the time being, and could do little more than step up security for the rest of the talks. It resulted in longer lines to enter each lecture and debate, but no one could really blame them.
It was a tense few days for everyone involved in security, anyone who was read into the security issues, and anyone who knew what was going on but didn't have the clearance to know all the details.
Jim spent those days just waiting for something to happen; the Admirals had requested that he spend the time with the Klingons, attending all lectures and talks with them for an added layer of protection and apology for the disruption. They were accompanied by several Security officers in addition to the Klingon guards, who had been allowed to carry their weapons once more, just in case Kodos made an appearance.
Not everyone had been pleased with that decision, but Jon and Nogura were in agreement that it made sense. Kodos and Edison had wanted to attack the talks because they hated the recent movement towards true peace and inclusion. One way to ensure there was no peace between Klingons and the Federation was to kill the Klingon representatives at a Federation-sponsored event.
Jim refused to let that happen, and so he was happy to comply with the Admirals' request. He would have done it anyway, but this way he didn't have to worry about whether he was giving enough time to other delegates as well.
To make up for Jim's lack of availability, the rest of the Enterprise's command crew stepped up to ensure that they spread themselves as widely as possible to ensure all the delegates felt safe and heard.
Jim appreciated the action immensely, especially after learning that it wasn't just the command crew. There had been members of his crew who had used their stay at Yorktown for a shore leave, choosing recreational activities over the talks. Once the talks resumed, however, Jim heard from Spock that there was a one hundred percent attendance rate among his crew at the variety of panels taking place throughout the various conference rooms and lecture halls.
It made Jim proud to be their Captain, and he vowed to find some way to thank them… once he had a ship again.
Jon told him that they would be commissioning some of the other ships docked for the talks to take the Enterprise crew back to Earth, though it likely wouldn't be all at once and they may be stuck on Yorktown for a few days and up to a week or two after the talks ended. Some of the ships would be rolling the event into a shore leave, and Jon couldn't very well ask them to cut that short so that they could ferry a bunch of stranded officers back to Earth.
They were building a new Enterprise – the design team was already working on new ships to replace the current fleet, so the next one completed would be christened the Enterprise. Jon put the estimate at six months – Jim knew what that meant: until they had a ship again, he and his crew would be assigned dirtside posts, most likely at the Academy though there may be opportunities for positions at some of the satellite campuses and offices in various countries around the globe.
He wasn't too upset about it. Things could have been so much worse and other than the ship, there had been no casualties, though there were a good half dozen crew members who would be on the injured list for at least part of their six months on Earth.
One thing Jim did feel bad about was Jayla's situation. She had been shuffled to the side a little, since their return to Yorktown. He had promised her they would have more time once the talks were over, to discuss what would happen next, and what she wanted to do now that she was off that planet, but for right now all of his attention, all of the Admirals' attention, was focused on making sure the talks remained successful and nothing else happened to derail them.
All in all, Jim thought as he joined the Admirals in preparation to enter the largest auditorium on Yorktown, which would hold upwards of five hundred people who would all watch eagerly as they signed the new peace treaty with the Klingons, things were looking pretty good.
He cursed himself as ten kinds of idiot for forgetting about Murphy's Law half an hour later when the world seemed to explode in pain around him.
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